He's Better Than This . . . Really

Sidney Crosby hasn’t overwhelmed his opponents yet on this tour of Western Canada.He has barely whelmed them.

But the Pittsburgh Penguins, sneaking around while everyone’s eyes have been on Sidney, are 2-0 in Alberta and can complete the Western sweep Saturday at GM Place — and if they do, it’s not going to matter to Crosby whether he wowed the crowds or left them unsatisfied.

But just for fun, it sure would be nice to see him look fully interested against the Canucks, considering the mixed feelings Vancouver still harbours for the kid, ever since he snubbed the city and scratched from the Top Prospects game three years ago on a pretty weak excuse.

A whole lot of plays died on his stick in the first two periods again Thursday in Calgary, just as they had in Edmonton the night before. He made half-hearted swipes at pucks along the boards — battled for some, it’s true — but just generally looked like about the fourth-best forward on his own team.And on Thursday, that made him maybe the sixth-best on the ice.

He’s better than that, a lot better.Maybe the incessant attention, the press conferences, the wall-to-wall coverage of his every hiccup, are grinding him down. I thought that contributed to the goose-egg he laid at the All-Star game in Dallas last year, and it could be happening again.

It’s the price of being fabulous, and he understands it.But Gretzky coped. If Sid is in that kind of league, or hopes to be, he’ll have to do the same.